Vulnerable
by loveintrainwrecks
Summary: Claudia Zacchara faces her worst nightmare. Oneshot.


**Vulnerable**

by LoveInTrainWrecks

Summary: Claudia Zacchara faces her worst nightmare.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did, I would never kill Claudia off. XD;

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Claudia walked into Sonny's office. She would finally propose the deal with him. It involved her giving him a beautiful expanse of land in Port Charles in exchange for her brother, Johnny. It was a proposal that Claudia knew that as soon as Sonny heard it, he would be willing to make a deal. He had responded immediately, and here she was, face-to-face with the man that dare lay a hand on her baby brother in the first place.

Sonny sat at his classy desk, his eyes strict and his mind interested only on making a firm business deal. He wasn't in the mood to play any of her mind games. "Do you have the papers?" He asked her, gruffly.

Claudia nodded curtly, and lifted her sophisticated black purse. She zippered it open and pulled out a set of papers, including the deed to the land. Before handing them over, however, she asked him, "Where's Johnny?"

"Give me my papers first, and I'll get you your brother," he replied.

Grudgingly, Claudia handed them over, her red fingernails shimmering against the light in the room. Sonny brusquely took them from her grasp. His eyes scrolled swiftly down the paper, and after finding Claudia's signature scrawled hastily at the bottom, he folded up the documents and put them in his jacket pocket. Claudia stared at him, her arms folded, waiting for her brother appear.

"Where's John?" She asked, impatiently.

"Max!" Sonny called, ignoring her. Moments afterward, Max appeared in his office. "Show Ms. Zacchara out and get her her brother." Soon after, Claudia left with Max silently, but not before exchanging reassuring glances with Sonny.

Max led her to a dark place. It was a remote building not too far from Sonny's coffee shop. Before Claudia knew it, Max was already fitting a silver key into a steel door. Max opened the door after the familiar clicking sound to reveal Johnny sitting on the floor, holding a black marker in his hands. Musical notes filled the walls of the room.

At the sound of the steel door being opened, Johnny looked up at Max. "So, am I finally getting out of this hellhole?" His eyes were filled with utter disgust at the fact that he was stranded in the room in the first place.

Claudia's eyes peered through the door, and as soon as she saw Johnny, she immediately ran to him, nearly knocking Max down. "Claudia?" He said, incredulously. He was saved.

"John!" she said, happily, her eyes glistening with tears.

Johnny soon got up from the floor and hugged her, grinning. Claudia warmly embraced him for a moment. When she finally released him, however, his figure began to dissolve into a pile of dust. "John?" she said, looking down at the dark pile quizzically.

"John! Where are you! No!" It wasn't long before Claudia became hysterical. "What happened to him?!" She said, turning around to face Max, who immediately turned into none other than Sonny Corinthos himself. That bastard.

"Claudia, your brother is gone. He's not coming back. Face it. You mess with me by shooting Kate, I mess with you by getting rid of your brother. He's gone." Sonny said, a wry smile beginning to form on his face. He looked as if he had absolutely no remorse regarding his actions. She had nothing to do with Kate's shooting!

"You.. you bastard!" Claudia said, her whole body trembling. Her eyes began to pour out hot tears. She walked up to Sonny and held him by the collar of his shirt, ready to make him pay for killing Johnny.

"Face it, Claudia.. He's gone," Sonny said, right before she could hit him. And with that, he disappeared. Claudia soon fell to the floor, hugging her knees and crying.

"No.. No.. No!" She cried.

.. Claudia woke up in a sweat. Her body jerked. and her hands immediately flew up to rub the tears out of her eyes. Quickly, she jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs to the living room barefoot, pushing open the doors to find Johnny sitting on the couch, the expression on his face deep in thought.

Johnny looked toward the living room's threshold. As soon as he saw his sister in a distraught mess, her hair all over the place, her nightgown full of wrinkles, and most of all, the broken look on her face, he leapt up to comfort her.

"Claudia, what happened?" He said, putting his arm around her and taking her to sit with him on the couch.

"Oh, Johnny.. I was afraid I'd lost you forever," she said, looking up at him. He pulled her into a warm hug as she quickly burst into tears. She'd just faced her worst nightmare, and she'd never felt so vulnerable since the day she was told she had to leave him.

That single shocking moment had replayed in her mind every single day since, and it had broke her heart to let him go in the past. Seeing that forlorn look on his face when she'd told him she had to leave.. She'd cried for days. Claudia had never wanted him to be miserable. He was just a little kid. She'd wanted him to have a normal life. A happy childhood. But of course, he didn't get one. And to discover that the only shining ray of light in his life was being taken away from him at the time was simply heartbreaking. She hated leaving him.

He was the only thing she had left- the reason she'd decided not to kill herself, despite all the terrible things she'd had to live with while she was living in the hands of her abusive father and Trevor Lansing. She couldn't leave him again.

And so they sat there like that, Johnny wrapping his big, strong arms around her fragile body, waiting for her to realize that he was right there all along, always willing to protect her.

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That's it. - Please review!


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